Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki (thomasmachnitzki.com) · CC BY 3.0Ripley has lower household incomes than 97% of U.S. towns
4% of workers work from home, against 13% across Tennessee. 30.7% of residents live below the poverty line, where Tennessee as a whole has 13.8%. Jobs and income earn Ripley D−; getting around on foot earns it C−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Ripley
How Ripley earns its Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Ripley’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($37,432, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ripley could be anywhere from D− to D.
About 23 minutes to work from Ripley
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ripley workers work from home, vs 13% across Tennessee. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,498 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Tennessee: 87% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
In and out of Ripley on a workday
On a workday 2,109 residents head out to work, 771 work right here, and 3,467 people come in from elsewhere.
About 8,900 people are in Ripley on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.47 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Covington
Where Ripley clocks in
12% of workers
12% of workers
8% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Inside Ripley’s 4,238 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ripley, 2013 → 2023: 3,577 → 4,238. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Ripley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Ripley
About 20% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The commute in Ripley is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ripley is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns, #130 of 177 in Tennessee. Both inputs place Ripley near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,594 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 16.4% of Ripley households have no vehicle (Tennessee 5.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Ripley’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ripley and other U.S. towns of 5,200 to 10,100
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 224 | Signal Mountain TN | 8,824 | $141K | 3.3% | 2.4% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 339 | Harrison TN | 8,011 | $89K | 3.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 381 | Tellico Village TN | 7,414 | $107K | 3.3% | 1.9% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,086 | Cordele GA | 9,652 | $34K | 29.0% | 7.5% | 30% | D− |
| 3,087 | Corry PA | 5,993 | $49K | 25.9% | 9.8% | 44% | D− |
| 3,088 | Ripley TN | 7,499 | $37K | 30.7% | 8.2% | 27% | D− |
| 3,089 | Hernando FL | 9,299 | $43K | 21.1% | 10.6% | 3% | D− |
| 3,090 | El Cerro Mission NM | 5,323 | $49K | 25.0% | 14.8% | 1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,125 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Ripley, the top three, the last and three more from Tennessee.
Next door to Ripley
The biggest share goes to Henning (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ripley workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ripley | – | D− | C− | 23 min | $37,432 |
| Henning | 2% | — | — | 28 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Henning: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Ripley’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Ripley: questions
What is the median household income in Ripley?
$37,432 (±$10,055) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $69,595 across Tennessee and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ripley?
30.7%, against 13.8% across Tennessee and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ripley?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Tennessee and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ripley work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Covington (12%, 14 mi), Memphis (12%, 50 mi), Jackson (8%, 40 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ripley walkable?
Ripley is more walkable than 23% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ripley without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ripley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ripley
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.